AFP – Sun, 18 Sep, 2011

Online gamers have achieved a feat beyond the realm of Second Life or Dungeons and Dragons: they have deciphered the structure of an enzyme of an AIDS-like virus that had thwarted scientists for a decade.

The exploit is published on Sunday in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, where -- exceptionally in scientific publishing -- both gamers and researchers are honoured as co-authors.

Their target was a monomeric protease enzyme, a cutting agent in the complex molecular tailoring of retroviruses, a family that includes HIV.

Figuring out the structure of proteins is vital for understanding the causes of many diseases and developing drugs to block them.

But a microscope gives only a flat image of what to the outsider looks like a plate of one-dimensional scrunched-up spaghetti. Pharmacologists, though, need a 3-D picture that "unfolds" the molecule and rotates it in order to reveal potential targets for drugs.

This is where Foldit comes in.

Developed in 2008 by the University of Washington, it is a fun-for-purpose video game in which gamers, divided into competing groups, compete to unfold chains of amino acids -- the building blocks of proteins -- using a set of online tools.

To the astonishment of the scientists, the gamers produced an accurate model of the enzyme in just three weeks.

Cracking the enzyme "provides new insights for the design of antiretroviral drugs," says the study, referring to the lifeline medication against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

It is believed to be the first time that gamers have resolved a long-standing scientific problem.

Read more here:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/online-gamers-crack-aids-enzyme-puzzle-175427367.html

Courtesy of Yahoo News . ca from AFP News

I don't understand it, but it sound cool--very cool.

Also "sounds like" a job for Artificial Intelligence==or just a computer?  If the "rules" were concrete enough to write down and give the gamers, why exactly could a computer not follow those rules? ........HAH!!!!!!====was it a "visual" thing?

Good post.

Bobbo, did you read the rest of the story? It tells you that both scientists and computers have failed to solve the problem, but that gamers did it in only 3 weeks. Hence gamers have a skill set which is superior to both scientists and computer programers.
Yes, if you read and comprehend the story, it is a spatial visual [3D] problem of how are these molecules folded up into their preferred configuration!
Further more upon re-reading the article, I now think that the Program should be named UnFoldit! or is that the C2H6OH in me starting to talk?
This is another case of where the posting directive(s) of this site cause confusion amongst readers who do not have or take the time to read the linked story. What a screwed up World we live in where we are not allowed to write the Whole Truth and be damned with the frigging lawyers!

Obtuser--my comments assume your comments.  Funny how often that happens.  Humor and wry comment is based on assuming a common set of facts===like having read the OP.  You don't "get that" in my asking if it was a visual thing?  connecting this article not only to what the original challenge was but also to the challenge of the Visual Turing Test?

How can I fly like an eagle when I'm surrounded by turkeys?

Solo.

"How can I fly like an eagle when I'm surrounded by turkeys?"

Easy! Stop eating chop with the Turkeys and go fish for Salmon to ingest! aka go soar and not Solow!